Book Reviews

Quality Management:
Implementing the Best Ideas of the Masters

By Bruce Brocka and M. Suzanne Brocka

Reviewed by Steve Buchwald, CIRM

There are so many quality authorities, so many programs, so many techniques, that we can be paralyzed into inaction by the sheer amount of information available. This book offers a way out of that dilemma.

The authors isolate the essential elements of a quality management program and postulate a model that can be used to customize an implementation plan to specific company conditions and requirements. The major "quality masters" are introduced and compared, and the reader learns that the fundamentals are similar. The key to implementing a quality program, we find, is not rigid adherence to one blueprint, but common sense and innovative perseverance.

Each tool in organization, planning, assessment, and implementation is described, discussed, broken down into steps. Examples are plentiful, and the authors provide generous lists of things to encourage and things to avoid.

As you might expect, the complete bibliography and resource lists are massive, but the authors also provide shorter lists of essential or primary sources.

A delightful appendix provides 75 "quick-start" ideas that, overall, summarize what a quality program should be - people oriented and (gasp!) fun.

If we had to name one quality book that every manager must read, it's this one. It simplifies without trivializing, inspires without preaching, and assures the reader that making mistakes along the way is not only acceptable, but can be the doorway to innovation and growth.

Good reading!